PAKISTAN’S late attempt to salvage some pride with the white ball continued in the form of a dominant nine-wicket victory over England in the only Twenty20 International yesterday.The tourists went into the short-form clash at Old Trafford having avoided a whitewash in the one-day international series with a consolation four-wicket victory in Cardiff on Sunday.
In Manchester, their much improved bowling attack, led by Wahab Riaz (3-18), the excellent Imad Wasim (2-17) and Hasan Ali (2-24) restricted an England team that had clobbered a world-record 444-3 in the third ODI to a meagre 135-7.
Alex Hales proved England’s talisman with a 26-ball 37 but his efforts paled in comparison to those of Khalid Latif (59 not out) and Sharjeel Khan (59), who put on a blistering opening stand of 107 to lay the platform for an emphatic nine-wicket win.
Having won the toss and chosen to bat, England’s first boundaries did not arrive until the third over courtesy of Hales but he and Jason Roy (21) found their rhythm after the latter smacked Sohail Tanvir (0-35) over deep midwicket, reaching 53-0 at the end of the powerplay.
Four balls later Imad trapped Roy lbw and Hales fell to the same man as his stumps were rearranged by the all-rounder.
Hasan snared Joe Root (6) to make it two wickets in two balls and Jos Buttler’s attempts to get the scoreboard ticking over ended with him carving a shot to the deep point fielder for 16.
Ben Stokes (4) followed him back to the pavilion as England’s frustration mounted, before captain Eoin Morgan (14) nicked Riaz to Sarfraz Ahmed.
A four from David Willey (12) served as England’s only boundary in the final 10 overs and Pakistan were aggressive in their pursuit of the small total, Sharjeel and Latif sharing 14 boundaries evenly in the powerplay to reach 73-0.
England had no answers to the opening pair and Sharjeel brought up his 50 in just 30 balls with a huge six over deep midwicket.
The 100-partnership arrived inside the 10th over and though Sharjeel finally went to Adil Rashid (1-29) for his highest score in a T20I, Latif completed the rout by recording his maiden T20I half-century with a booming six as Pakistan secured an morale-boosting triumph with 31 balls to spare.

(Omnisport)